It is your birthday month.
People ask what you plan on doing for your birthday and that automatically signals a train of thought. Or thoughts that give you palpitations.
Some of the very common thoughts are: "I'm getting older and have not yet achieved every single thing I expected to achieve by this age. There is still so much to do and so little time. I do not want to think about this or make a big deal out of it."
Some people go on to delete their Facebook accounts so that those constant wishes don't startle them every minute. We do not want to be constantly reminded of everything we are not, and everything we want ourselves to be.
This anxiety was gone in an instant with a near-death experience a couple of years ago. That is when I became desperate for 100 more birthdays. So after surviving the horrible experience, I wanted to celebrate my next birthday in a different way.
I want to celebrate living to see me reach that number and so I wanted to live through each moment of that day and make it oh-so-valuable.
This celebration was huge for me, but there was nothing extravagant like fancy balloons or a huge party with blasting music and crazy dancing. Instead, I invited my family and those closest to me over for dinner. I told them what kind of a present I wanted. A creative present with something thoughtful, nothing expensive or fancy, but something with an idea to it.
While it was hard for some people to put thought into it, I think it was the greatest thing I ever asked for and some of the best presents I got.
As soon as the clock hit 12 and it was my birthday, my mom brought the mini Bose speaker in my room. I thought, "Uh oh, we're gonna have music here." Instead, she had made a WhatsApp group where she asked our family and friends to record a sweet birthday wish voice message to send to the group.
She then played the voice messages on the speaker and I had to tell who the message was from.
I cannot to this day put my feelings in words.
It felt so surreal, I was filled with so much emotion that I was jumping, crying, smiling, trying to calm myself down. My dad stared in disbelief, he could not believe how happy he saw me and honestly neither did I.
Now, I don't expect anyone to understand the feeling or imagine it, I know they cannot unless it is experienced. The amount of love, support, and care I felt from those birthday wishes was a reminder of how lucky I am and it was something that was really necessary on this emotional birthday.
This was the best present ever and no other present can ever compete.
No matter how tough some people act, they need a reminder like the one I got. So why don't you try giving the best present ever to a loved one? Make sure to get the camera out!
